West and Central Africa: Regional Child Protection in Emergencies Specialist

Plan International is an independent development and humanitarian organisation that advances children’s rights and equality for girls. We believe in the power and potential of every child. But this is often suppressed by poverty, violence, exclusion and discrimination. And it’s girls who are most affected. Working together with children, young people, our supporters and partners, we strive for a just world, tackling the root causes of the challenges facing girls and all vulnerable children.

We support children’s rights from birth until they reach adulthood. And we enable children to prepare for – and respond to – crises and adversity. We drive changes in practice and policy at local, national and global levels using our reach, experience and knowledge. We have been building powerful partnerships for children for over 85 years, and are now active in more than 80 countries.

Plan International is operation in 15 countries across West and Central Africa helping poor children to access their rights to health, education. protection and livelihood. Plan works to bring long lasting improvements to children's lives. Plan's main goal is that children grow well in a healthy envirolnment, children participate in the development process, adults, particularly women, acquire literacy and life skills, and communities are well organized.

The Opportunity: 

The Regional CPiE Specialist will provide strategic humanitarian leadership related to Child Protection across the West and Central Africa region, especially in the countries affected by the crises. The post holder supports affected country Offices ensuring child protection interventions are of high quality and position Plan International as a leading agency working on child protection in emergencies with specific recognition of our girls' focus.

The position will develop strong relations with regional networks (CPiE and SGBV regional networks), regional UN and donor offices. There will be more attention on Plan International’s engagement which focuses on influencing and ensuring the specific needs of girls.

The Regional CPiE specialist will provide support to CPiE specialists or focal persons in the country offices and will ensure that Country Offices have the right technical capability for Child Protection in Emergency by supporting the professional development of Plan’s staff across the region.

Furthermore, the Specialist will focus on the provision of technical assistance to: 

• Ensure that CPiE interventions are aligned with the Child Protection Minimum Standards in Humanitarian Action and other existing global guidelines and tools for CPiE and to create synergies between our CPiE and GBV programming and
• To ensure that our CPiE interventions are linked into longer term programming.
• To support the technical coordination and implementation of the Emergency Response Programs of Plan International across WACAH region.

The post holder will not have direct staff supervision but will support Regional ERM to have indirect oversight of a significant CPiE budget managed by individual Country offices. The post holder is expected to deploy (sometimes at short notice) as Child Protection in Emergency to support Country Offices in the region to respond to new crises.

Please note that fluency (business-level proficiency) in French and English is mandatory for this role. Kindly provide evidence of this in your application.

Please note that your application should in a comprehensive cover letter, a clear and comprehensive CV and the contact of four (4) of your professional referees, one of whom should be your current employer.

Location: In any of the West and Central African countries where Plan International is established namely Benin, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Liberia, Mali, Niger, Nigeria, Senegal, Sierra Leone and Togo. Support with relocation is available if required.

How to Apply: 

Apply using this link: Regional Child Protection in Emergencies Specialist (plan-international.org)

Equality, diversity, and inclusion is at the very heart of everything that Plan International stands for.

We want Plan International to reflect the diversity of the communities we work with, offering equal opportunities to everyone regardless of age, disability, gender reassignment, marriage and civil partnership, pregnancy and maternity, race, religion or belief, sex, or sexual orientation.

Plan International is based on a culture of inclusivity and we strive to create a workplace environment that ensures every team, in every office, in every country, is rich in diverse people, thoughts, and ideas.

We foster an organisational culture that embraces our commitment to racial justice, gender equality, girls’ rights, and inclusion.

Plan International believes that in a world where children face so many threats of harm, it is our duty to ensure that we, as an organisation, do everything we can to keep children safe. This means that we have particular responsibilities to children that we come into contact with, and we must not contribute in any way to harming or placing children at risk.

A range of pre-employment checks will be undertaken in conformity with Plan International's Safeguarding Children and Young People policy. Plan International also participates in the Inter-Agency Misconduct Disclosure Scheme. In line with this scheme, we will request information from applicants previous employers about any findings of sexual exploitation, sexual abuse and/or sexual harassment during employment, or incidents under investigation when the applicant left employment. By submitting an application, the job applicant confirms their understanding of these recruitment procedures.

Please note that Plan International will never send unsolicited emails requesting payment from candidates.